We were awoken this morning by the sound of rain on canvas and we were not sure how much more was to come so it was a mad scramble to break camp and head south to Oodnadatta.
The rain didn’t let up but it wasn’t heavy, just persistent. With that the road was quickly turned to mud which slowed us down.
Because we had to break camp before getting breakfast, we stopped at Pinks Roadhouse after the 50km journey which took about an hour, refuelled (ended up having plenty of fuel due to dry conditions yesterday) and had breakfast at the roadhouse. It must have been mail day as most of the population headed through collecting their mail while we were there.
Given the conditions of the day, it was interesting to see the road conditions still indicating the Track was open to 2WD cars. The track was now getting very muddy and very slippery.
We made a stop at the Algebuckina Bridge which is the longest rail bridge in South Australia but of course is not used any more now that the Ghan railway has been moved over towards the Stuart Highway. The going around here was getting hard with an inch of mud added to your shoes as we walked around. We had a little reprieve and a chance to wash some mud off on the new concrete causeway over the Neale River.
It wasn’t long before we came across a German on a motorbike basically walking the bike as he kept falling over in the mud. He had handed his gear to another traveller to take to William Creek. I don’t think he was going to catch up with that for a while as there was about 100 km to go until then. Another 5km on and we came across 2 double road trains full of cattle bogged on the track. It was interesting trying to get around them without sliding into the sides of the trucks. These guys were going to sit it out until the road dried up – could be a day or two.
More drama a little further on when The Parrots went over a crest and lost it, starting to head off into the prairie and starting to roll but stopped before heading over. I came over the crest not that quick but still had issues pulling it up before getting to them. I managed to stop with about 10m to spare. Phew!!
We both had another lose on the last 500m into William Creek. At this stage the Road Condition sign had changed from “Open” to “4WD” but I would say it wouldn’t be long before it became “Closed”. It was time to fuel up and have a well deserved beer at the William Creek Hotel.
Our cars soon became talking points with others wanting to know where we had come from and the conditions that way. After talking with us a lot of people decided to camp the night at William Creek and hope that the Oodnadatta Track would dry out by morning.
After a bit of a break and looking at the relatively clean cars coming from the south we decided to continue south down the track to Coward Springs and have a soak in the Hot Pool and camp there.
Hooray, we actually arrived somewhere in daylight. After setting up camp in a great location (or so we thought), it was off to a soak in the Hot Tub. After Dalhousie Springs, this one was very bearable and was more towards tepid than hot.
With a spectacular sunset, it was time for some eats and drinks around the campfire before heading off to bed.
Around 11:30pm the wind sprung up from the desert and we soon found out that our ideal campsite had little protection from the desert. Being in the roof tent it was easy for me to uproot camp and move to another location with some wind shelter. The Parrots however had to use their car as a shield and weather it out as best they could. In the end some damage was sustained to their new tent.
